Pardes Faculty Traveling

Donna Rudolph Profile

Upon graduating from the Pardes Educators Program I was fortunate to have gotten a wonderful job. I was a 4th, 5th and
6th grade Judaic studies teacher in a small school in Washington, DC. I
remember saying to my husband at some point that I actually looked forward to
getting up in the morning and going to work every day. How many people can say
that? I think part of what made the job so enjoyable was that I had a majority
of motivated students; parents whom I felt were my partners in their children's
education, and most importantly a supportive staff and a supportive principal.
The faculty and parent body appreciated me as a teacher and as a person.

We moved back to Israel 2 years ago and understandably my greatest fear was not
having job satisfaction. My first job here was as a sort of liaison
between the children of new olim or people who were in Israel on Sabbatical at
a specific Mamlachti Dati (Public religious) school. I would go into
class with these kids and give support as needed- mostly in their Judaic
studies/Hebrew classes. I had a very difficult experience in doing this,
primarily on being an observer. I was used to kids behaving and being excited
about school, I was used to kids having enough food for lunch, I was used to working
at a school with a no bullying policy, not one that didn’t notice bullying
going on. I was so used to the ‘luxury’ of making as many photocopies as I
wanted (there wasn’t a laminating machine so we won't even go there☺).
All of these privileges were part of working in a private Jewish school
in the US, and clearly I was ‘not in Kansas anymore’. If I am being honest with
myself, the two parts that bothered me the most were the idea that my own
children would eventually be exposed to and part of this system, and that I still
can’t for sure say that the kids were not learning anything. I think they
actually were!

The job came to an end when I had a baby and I decided that at least for the
time being I needed to find something else to do, that could possibly
accommodate my staying at home for a few years. As luck would have it, a Pardes
teacher and someone that I work with at a GAP year program told me about the
Lookstein Center’s virtual teacher program. This is where teachers from
Eretz Yisrael are hired by a day school in America to teach some kind of Judaic
Studies or Hebrew class via video conferencing. The class size ranges
depending on the schools needs. In more rural areas of the country the
Lookstein Center’s teacher has a very strong presence, as they may be one of a
handful of Judaic studies teachers, if not the only one, at the school. In the
bigger cities there are more options- and so in choosing a Lookstein teacher
they truly see the benefit of the students not only getting some extra skills
but also having the Israel-America connection.

I was placed at a Modern Orthodox Day School in New Jersey. I have been
teaching Mishnah and Ivrit to 5th graders in an enrichment class 4 nights a
week. The class is completely student run. There are 5 -7 kids per class.
I assigned two students to be in email contact with me. Every week I send
the fifth graders the assignment to be distributed to the rest of the class,
and we work from there. One student is in charge of setting up the
camera, the chairs and the headsets. Another student is in charge of
actually calling me, using the video conferencing system we use. Once we
establish a virtual connection, I take it from there. I am able to share
my screen, and I take full advantage of having the internet at my fingertips.
I have made and edited videos for them; they have also made and edited
videos for me. We have somewhat of an - "alternative" - and enriched class
environment. It almost brings in the - "informal" - into formal education.
The vice principal is in regular contact with me in terms of how the students
are doing and I am also in regular contact with their regular teachers.

I would love to say this system is AMAZING, but as you can imagine there are
often kinks to iron out. I don’t have someone sitting in the room so when
a student is disruptive or forgets their homework I have very little leeway in
terms of dealing with it in class. Nothing could replace a physical teacher in
the classroom, that’s a given. However, I have to say that I have a very
meaningful connection with the class. The Lookstein center sent me to meet them
at their school in New Jersey towards the beginning of the school year, and our
face to face meeting helped establish and forge our bond. I found them to
be motivated, respectful, thoughtful, kind and bright!

So while ideally I would love to physically be in a classroom and miss being able to
dance around the classroom, as I call on students and just having a
presence in general- I would take this job any day. It’s the best of both
worlds to me. I sincerely hope that with the advance of technology this
will get easier and easier.